Making Small Work: Business Models for Electrifying the World
Hisham Zerriffi, Liu Faculty, UBC
September 1, 2007
Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
Working Paper #63
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
http://pesd.stanford.edu/
Despite over a century of investment in electric power systems, there are roughly 1.6 billion people who lack access to electricity service, mainly in rural areas. While there are some open questions regarding the precise cause and effect relationships between rural electrification and human welfare, it is generally considered an important social, economic, and political priority to provide electricity to all. Unfortunately, the very complicated links between electricity and development are often obscured behind two idealized visions of rural electrification.
